Random Arrows
by iluvaqt
Summary: Episode fixes. Tired of waiting for things to play out better. I'm not because I decided to fix it. 3x17 - Felicity decides to show Ray what she thinks of his energy pulse and she also won't let Oliver dictate her happiness anymore.
1. A Hard Light Lesson S3E17

My Happy Ending Fix, S3 Ep 17

**Summary: **Following Ray's confrontation with Oliver and Roy, Felicity does things a little differently, and as a result she manages to crack through the hard exterior Oliver has built around his emotions.

**Disclaimer: **I don't have ownership of these characters or their stories. They belong to their respective creators, DC Comics, theCW, Andrew Kreisbreg, Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim. The story is not for sale or resale, it is written solely for Arrow fans. No money is being made from the use of these characters

::: ::: :::

Felicity logged out of Ray's system and took a second to recalibrate the discharge on the police stunner she'd borrowed Roy's stash of toys in the lair.

If there was any poetic justice to be had, then she was about to deliver it.

He was in her workshop when she came in. It used to be the board of Director's conference room but Ray had given it to her as her own personal lab when he'd given her the top job of Applied Sciences. Now he seemed to have made made it his second home since she had agreed to help him with his crusade. Depending on how he took this latest backlash from his foul up, it might be the last time they ever crossed paths.

"I know you're not that stupid, that you didn't figure out I worked with the Arrow and his team when I asked to borrow your helicopter to rescue the aldermen from the Glades and returned it with bulletholes. So when I said I was done losing friends I didn't expect you to decide to add tender crisp frier, billionaire turned Robocop to your resume."

When he gave her an incredulous look with one raised eyebrow and one red eye obviously hoping a plea of confused ignorance, she decided to be indisputably direct.

She pulled on the trigger and the darts hit him square in the chest. He had been unfortunately casually leaning against the table and when he lost control over the muscles in his legs holding him upright, he slid in a graceless seizing heap to the floor.

She released the darts and crouched by his head. "That charge was only half of the energy output of your mini pulse blasts. Maybe instead of using blow up clowns for target practice, you should have done more research into police tasers, and defibrillators before you hit the streets. You're lucky you didn't kill the Red Hood by the way. If your blast actually made full contact, he'd be in the morgue and you wouldn't have to worry about Captain Lance after you. You'd have me to worry about. Because I warned you, Ray. I won't lose anymore of my friends, and I only warn once."

Felicity yanked the darts free from his chest none too gently and stuffed the taser in her coat.

"I must have missed the team memo that said A.T.O.M was operational. Consider this my notice. This team up you wanted, it's not going to work out. We're not partners and I'm no ones sidekick."

::: ::: :::

As she left the building she wondered if she'd have a job tomorrow. Ray didn't strike her as the petty type, she had a real point to make and she knew he wasn't the kind of guy would didn't take wisdom when offered. She'd prevented him from making a future grave mistake. She hadn't made the changes to his system calibrations so when he did the research for himself, and he would, he would see her point.

It wasn't the first time he'd used her for his own ends without making her aware of the full picture. There was the signal booster and hacking of Queen Consolidated systems. Then there was the damaged hard drive he'd had her reconstruct to gather buried tech projects that Isabel and Slade had been working using QC resources without Oliver's knowledge. She had helped him repeatedly with his A.T.O.M project and he had neglected to tell her it was fully functional.

As Felicity got into her car to head back to the Foundry she made a mental note to send Cisco a huge box of his favorite Swiss chocolate and a bottle of Gentleman Jack. If Cisco hadn't redesigned her boys' suits after Barry's to be more flexible, heat, friction, fire- resistant and nonconductive, Roy would have flatlined in that alley instead of only being knocked unconscious by catching a partial pulse of energy in the face.

She wasn't normally an aggressive person, but anyone threatening her friends, more like family really, then she felt this surge of fire that just burst out of her. They risked their lives every time they suited up and went out. She'd had felt that adrenaline herself multiple times going out in the field herself and unlike Laurel, Roy, Oliver and even Dig, she didn't relish it. It terrified her almost senseless. She had an enormous amount of respect for what they did, and for the choices they made to protect the city without any killing. So when someone like Ray wanted to step up and make them stand down. Well they better make damn sure they could top the bar her team set.

Tonight Ray fell well short of the mark. His only saving grace would be if he decided to man up and actually listen to her and give the Arrow the benefit of the doubt and start looking for the real perpetrators.

::: ::: :::

(After giving him a chaste farewell kiss before leaving, Felicity can't shake the feeling that she needed to talk more about Oliver's reaction to her relationship with Ray after learning of his super-suit)

.

Felicity watched him blink back his shock at seeing Ray at the John and Lyla's wedding. She watched him school his face and shut down his emotions when she admired the bouquet in her hand, suspecting where his thoughts had gone but had cut them off just as quickly.

After being called out and then confronted by Ray, which ended in the best way she could have hoped for considering she didn't know Ray even a tenth of how she knew Oliver. It was that startling and sobering thought that stopped her from driving home.

The red light switched from green to caution and back to red, she was only startled from her thoughts when a truck full of rowdy youths flew past on the other side of the road.

She flicked on her turning signal and waited for the light. On green she turned the car around and went back to the Foundry. She should have been going to the meeting with the Mayor. Ray trusted her judgement, he was giving them a chance. Both them as a possible couple and the Arrow to prove his innocence and catch the real perps and all she could think about was how great Oliver had gotten at lying… to the team (withholding things like Ra's offer), to her (about being happy for her) and best of all lying to himself. She had the nerve to stand up to Malcolm Merlyn, she could lock out her boss from his private super hush pet project but she couldn't get Oliver to admit how he really felt about her or actually tell him the truth about her own feelings?.

It had to stop. She had gotten him to see the folly in giving up on the Arrow and taking Ra's offer, essentially losing himself forever. Either he'd forgotten the League's sever all other bonds, part of the fealty pledge or he was taking the easy out to escape them. To leave her. It hurt to think that he was so tortured by the idea of her that he'd ever consider joining, much less leading the League of Assassins. She didn't realize how conflicted and torn up she was over her feelings until she'd been confronted with the real possibility that she had to choose between Ray and Oliver. Oliver being the closed book and emotionless droid he was making himself out to be, she knew he would never make her feel like she had to make any sacrifice but Ray… It was naive of her but she'd never thought that he would ever target the Arrow or find out that Oliver was the one under the hood. Ray was a good man, with noble ambitions but she knew the moment she kissed him tonight that he wasn't the man she would choose.

As she suspected, when she came down the stairs, Oliver was there training. He only went home to check on Thea these days and since she's opted to stay with Roy to avoid being around Merlyn 24/7, he rarely left the Glades at all.

In her head, she rehearsed everything she wanted to say to him. All her frustration, every word she wished she had said before he left to go up against Ra's the first time. But as she got closer and took the stairs to the foundry basement level and she heard the metal clang of the salmon ladder, her nerve started to fail her. She didn't consider herself a femme fatale. Men didn't get weak at the knees over her. Men didn't get tongue tied in her presence. Men didn't try to beat her to doors to open them for her. She found herself doubting not for the first time, if he cared about her but didn't desire her at all. And that's why he could say he loved her but didn't fight for her.

She bristled and set her coat and her bag down on her swivel chair.

Her heart hammering and her feminine pride bruised, remembering Isabel's smug smile and sexy sashay from Oliver's hotel room burned in her mind's eye.

"I'm not happy, damn it. I'm not happy because you refuse to be. I put so much of myself into this, into you, us, the Arrow that for a long time that's all I was. And that was okay," she protested seeing his guilty look. "I chose this, and I'm still choosing it but I want you to tell me honestly. If I walked away right now… Would you even ask me to stay? Would you fight for me?"

A flash of hurt and shock flickered over his face before he locked it away.

Felicity curled her hands into fists and let out a hiss through her teeth. "That's what I thought. I'm dispensable, forgettable, replaceable… Any warm body will do? You can just pick up another techie, another Girl Wednesday. You don't do feelings, right? The more impersonal and efficient the better."

She felt a tear snake down her cheek when she saw his jaw tick with tension and his eyes flash with hurt. She knew her words hurt, they hurt her to say but she had to. She was going to break through his walls, even if it took a sledgehammer.

He needed this. They both did. What he was doing wasn't healthy. She was done denying what she felt for him. She was in love with him and she refused to let him destroy himself, and a chance to live because he was afraid.

"I'll walk away, if that's what it takes. It doesn't really matter because here, not here, I can still hurt you. I know you, Oliver. A lot better than you think and better than you know yourself, maybe. Who are you protecting? Me? Slade knows you love me, Nyssa knows, the League knows, Merlyn knows, Helena knows," she snorted in a very unladylike fashion and met his eyes unrepentantly. "And you can bet that Waller knows it too. So why keep me at arm's length? Do you regret ever going on that date? Do you regret kissing me? It certainly feels like it?"

She had started pacing so she missed the rapid blinking that signalled he was anxious and the redness creeping up his neck to his hairline that warned a pending outburst of temper.

"You think I regret anything we did together?"

Felicity's Oliver emotional radar twitched the moment his voice dropped a couple octaves to his Arrow persona. But this wasn't about threatening, she could feel his emotions as though they were tangible, leaving him in waves. They washed over her a mix of incredulous, hurt and mocking words. Her gaze flew to his and she could read the heat and focus in their sharp blue depths.

She sucked in a breath and froze mid-step. He stalked to her and stopped no more than an inch away, staring down at her from his considerable height. She often forgot how tall he was, she was always wearing heels but considering she'd been hoping for dancing at Diggle's wedding she'd chosen shorter more comfortable ones. And strangely or not with all the running around she'd done the past two days, she'd stuck with the lower heels.

"That I could regret a single moment with you. How for one brief moment I got to hold you the way I've thought about a thousand times. That I could ever forget or regret the one time I got to taste and feel your lips, the softness, the heat, your sweetness." He leaned down until he could practically taste the cherry of her gloss.

"What are you waiting for," she dared to breathe, soaking in his overwhelming presence. Oliver just had to be in a room and she could sense him. Like gravity. She didn't need to see him, she could feel him like a intangible tether. He was her port and she would sail to him, weather any storm, do anything he asked because he was her safe harbour. Why couldn't he see that she would only be safe with him. That she would only feel whole and happy sharing her life with him. She couldn't do that, she wouldn't be whole if he shut her out of his heart.

Oliver searched her face and read the submission in her eyes. "A guy whose never felt rejection before, Felicity, I was waiting for you."

Felicity hooked her fingers into the belt loops of his pants and pulled him flush against her. She watched his eyes dilate and his nostrils flare with the force of his sudden exhale. "Fight for me, Oliver. Fight for us. Don't push me away, when all I want is right here." She bypassed touching his chest, doing her best to ignore the grisly new scar there that had almost stolen him from her forever. She reached up and caressed his stubble covered cheeks and pulled his head down the fraction more for their mouths to meet.

Oliver lost himself to the kiss. The band around his heart snapping under the strain of emotion she created in his chest. He didn't feel the tears or way his whole body trembled. Felicity didn't let him go, not even when his knees buckled and they went to the floor. He broke the kiss and buried his face in her neck, breathing her in, her warmth, her light, the comfort he found in her surprisingly strong embrace.

His voice was hoarse and gravely when he spoke, "What about Ray?"

Felicity let out a deep shuddering breath and hugged him tighter. "Ray knows how I feel about you."

Oliver straightened reluctantly and cupped his hand to her cheek. "And just how is that? I seem to recall you saying I was one of your closest friends?"

Felicity blushed and turned her head to press a kiss to his palm. She smiled brightly at him. "You're my best friend, Oliver." She watched his eyes close and his lips thin and she teased his bottom lip with her index finger. "I love you, Oliver Queen." She watched his gorgeous eyes snap open and fix on hers. "Who says I can't be devoted, insanely attracted to and in love with my best friend?"

Oliver's face broke into the warmest smile she'd ever seen that it brought happy, delirious tears to her eyes.

"Love you. Sometimes I wish I could turn it off. It would be easier. You would be so much safer, away from me, with someone better, not tainted and hunted."

Felicity brushed away the deep furrow between his brows. "I've made my own share of enemies, Oliver. I'm not this perfect paragon you make me out to be. Don't put me on a pedestal. It'll only make it ten times more painful when you watch me fall. I'm not perfect, I don't try to be and neither are you. We can be imperfectly perfect together."

Oliver leaned forward and touched his forehead to hers. "Okay," he conceded, his voice softening with his defeat.

The tension he'd been feeling since he came back to Starling to find a city gone mad and a team that had moved on without him, fell away. In her arms, her face tucked against his, he never felt more whole and weightless. He felt free.

Felicity ran her fingers over his hair. It was even softer than she'd imagined and every nerve in her body was alive with the sensation, the soft satiny bristles invoked from her fingertips to her toes. She moved her face and kissed his neck, feeling his strong heartbeat thump against her lips.

"Together?" she asked, her voice full of hope and a hint of uncertainly. Only he could do that to her, she had taken him at his word not long after they started working together and she realized how important he'd come to be to her. He promised to never leave but he had, several times already. She wasn't sure she could handle uncertainly, maybes or doubts anymore. It was as though her future, her heart were in his hands now. He could break her too she was just discovering. She held onto him tighter, he felt real, strong and present. But for how long, till he pushed her away again or something else took him.

Oliver threaded his hands into her hair and pulled her back slightly so he could see her wide blue eyes behind her trademark glasses. "Together," he said softly, reverently and he followed that promise with a kiss.

His eyes were honest, open and the hint of his previous smile still crinkling at the corners of his eyelids. Their world was dangerous. Their enemies knew their weakness but somehow, in the circle of their arms, the darkness couldn't touch them. Because they would fight, together.


	2. The Fern That Broke S3E19

Summary: We all have our breaking points. One careless idiot in blue and Felicity finally gives Capt. Lance a piece of her mind. In true, Loud Voice, Smoak-style.

Ep Fix for 3.19

* * *

Diggle would say that it was the little potted plant that broke the dam. When she heard, Laurel would say it was a long time coming. Thea would applaud and Oliver was still hoping there wouldn't be any fallout.

Felicity couldn't help it. Honestly they should have anticipated it and cleared out before now. After all, Captain Lance had it in for Oliver. And Roy had confessed to being the Arrow, spent a lot of time and was general manager of Verdant. A prime location in the Glades to run a secret base of operations.

They'd made them all wait around and watch while the SCPD tore apart everything they'd built in the last two years since The Undertaking.

Equipment bagged and tagged, furnishings in ruins and everything that wasn't bolted down, taken. And really, who cared how they did things. This was a den of criminal activity…the fern. Her only adornment in a seemingly sterile, Spartan environment, and been carelessly, ignorantly knocked to the floor. Felicity, scooped it up and carefully re-potted it in a empty ream box. She'd buy a new pot from a hardware store on the way home.

As the last of the officers were leaving, Felicity shook off Lance's hand on her forearm. She fixed him with a piercing glare. "I respected you once. You're right, there shouldn't be vigilantes keeping the streets safe. That's your job, but you're not doing it. You've got all this power and what do you do with it? Hunt the person who's done nothing but devote his every effort to keeping Starling City safe. Why don't you target the real villains in this story? Sara was The Canary long before she came to Starling and started working with the Arrow," she hissed softly.

"Don't you dare. Don't bring her into this," he growled at her threateningly.

Felicity was too riled up to care that he was getting in her face. Her mother said that her rare bouts of temper, she had inherited from her father. She was in fine form right now and she'd do him proud.

"That's the problem! You were fine working with the Arrow until you found out that Sara had been killed. Don't blame him for the lies. You want to know who was there when she died? Who brought her in and made the call to keep you in the dark? Laurel, but I think you've punished her enough. Hang on to the family you've got. The world we live in can steal that away in a heartbeat. If you're not happy with the status quo, you only have yourself to blame."

She was relieved to see his jaw unclench a little but his eyes still glared at her murderously and his posture hadn't relax. Nor did she miss the way he glanced over her shoulder at whom she knew was sitting behind them.

"You're angry because she was taken from you, you're blaming the wrong person. Malcolm Merlyn didn't become the Dark Archer by accident. All those impersonators you've got running around the city, putting arrows in people. The one who killed the mayor. They were all trained by the same man, Ra's a Ghul. Dust that enormous chip off your shoulder, throw away those tunnel vision glasses. You've only got the Glades back because there are some people who refuse to let evil take over. All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing. Right now, you're worse doing worse than nothing. You're hunting those that would help you. Taking the Arrow and people like him off the streets… the world is bigger than you think it is Captain Lance, and I really don't want to be around to see your face when you realize I'm right."

"When you lie in your bed at night, ask yourself this. Where was Oliver Queen when the Undertaking first began? Where was he when thugs decided to play Robin Hood and started randomly targeting people all over the city after the earthquake in the Glades? And more importantly, what did I tell you when you asked for help after Brick started terrorizing the city? You never cared about the man behind the mask while the arrangement worked for you. Don't start now just because you have no where else to put all that anger and bitterness. Be the better man, the one Sara loved, the one that Laurel needs."

She stepped away and picked up the white box from where she'd left it safely tucked under the stairs, away from the possibility of being trampled further by inconsiderate oafs.

Lance didn't stop her when she shouldered her precious cargo and made to move past him.

"You know where to find me," she said stiffly. "But before you decide to arrest anyone else on trumped up charges, I recorded every single one of our conversations and I have video surveillance of you meeting up with both Canaries. With the new tech Palmer Technologies is going to sell to the DOD to advance facial recognition and targeting in the real fight against terrorism. Well, wouldn't want to be you."

The sound of her heels on the stairs echoed in the large open space that was so quiet, you could hear the pipes that leaked.

She didn't turn around but Digg would tell her that Lance had gone whiter than bleached paper. With the servers gone, all the cameras in the lair were down. There was a program on her phone that deactivated any listening devices in the vicinity of her person. He'd get nothing from their conversation but a warning. Lance was playing hardball with them, he needed to know that she would only be pushed so far. Her temper wasn't the only thing she'd inherited from her father.


	3. Fade to Black S3E20

Written for Scu11y22

Who wanted a short that elaborated on Felicity's transition from red nails in Nanda Parbat to black nails in Ep 3.21

* * *

On the plane ride back while she held a sleeping Thea, Felicity stared at her nails. The red against the paleness of her skin was taunting her with memories of those fingers caressing scarred but beautiful skin. He had firm, smoothness between that scar tissue and she had memorized every single one. As they lay together in the afterglow of their glorious love-making she had absently stroked his Bratva tattoo beneath the bullet-wound that had started it all. This partnership, this friendship, this love.

He had whispered more stories to her. More of his time in Hong Kong, Shado's sister and the other tattoos.

She should have anticipated then what the sharing had been about. Oliver said it wasn't goodbye but in his heart he'd known what Ra's would do. He knew and he was afraid he'd never get to share all of himself with her. That no one would ever know the Oliver that had survived the island and the five years he'd been in hell.

She had done her best to show him, to prove to him she knew who he was and that she loved him regardless.

It was her secret. It was her anonymity and it gave her power. There was a reason why she had set up the lair the way she had. Felicity loved Cosplay. Her goth period was just a very small part of a much larger wardrobe and every day she got to have a little bit of her fantasy life spill over to the real word in her nail color.

Red was Oliver.

Red was their thing.

She didn't realize it until now but whether consciously or unconsciously, she always wore red and associated red with him.

With fondness and a soft snort in memory she recalled the first time she'd worn red for him and what her runaway mouth, lack of filter in full show had said to him that night. Boy, did she know how good he felt inside her.

She shifted a little, an ache she wouldn't be able to soothe blooming between her thighs. She wanted to slap herself at where her brain had gone while his sister was innocently sleeping in her lap. Bad Felicity.

It wasn't until she'd told Laurel and broken down over it, that they'd left Oliver there. The dam she'd been building around her emotions had crumbled.

She had left him. It didn't matter that they had no choice. It shouldn't have mattered that she could have been killed, she should have fought harder, tried something else…

When she left Laurel that night and gone home, those red nails still glaring up at her, she knew it was time for Bad Ass Felicity to come out to play.

Bad Ass Felicity couldn't hit a target with a glock at fifty paces. She couldn't take on a ninja with nothing but her fists. She didn't have a Canary Cry, or a katana but she was the mother of all hackers and she knew her tech. Felicity would get their team anything they wanted, she could arm them all to the teeth, she could rally her heroes and she was sure she could break through whatever brainwashing and indoctrination Ra's would try on her man.

But she needed her armor to do it, so for now the red would have to go.

Dragging out the 100 bottle kit from the storage drawer under the sofa, she put her feet up on the coffee table, she unscrewed the acetone and got to work.

Bad Ass Felicity was black.

But red would be back. Just as soon as Al Sa-him was gone for good.


	4. Road Trip: Dirty

Hiatus one-shot: Olicity Road Trip adventures

Our loved up duo have settled for the time being in Cancun, it's far enough away from Starling, being that they're in another country with a Gulf between them but still close enough to home, to worry less.

Felicity learns just how many domestic talents Oliver has, while realizing there's only one kind of dirty she's interested in.

* * *

When Felicity came home from her tech expedition to find the most well stocked electronics store in Cancun, she found Oliver on his knees in the backyard of their small house, up to his elbows in dirt and he was smiling.

She stood frozen, bags in hand, car door still open and watched him in fascinated shock. Granted she had seen him posed as Tarzan totally at home in the trees half naked but for some reason she had never pictured this.

He seemed to sense her and looked up to give her a wide smile, perfect pearly whites catching the mid afternoon sun. It was such a good look on him and never failed to make her smile in return.

Felicity found her voice, "So this is where you disappear to?"

Oliver sat back on his legs and gave her a sheepish smile. "Old habits. I keep growing the herbs. Usually do it in a hot house so there's less chance of disease or bugs."

Felicity nodded realizing that he had to have been growing the island herbs for his supply not to have run out by now. It wasn't as though you could mail order the stuff from Lian Yu. Who was going to pick and ship it for him, Slade or Harkness? She snorted inwardly at the thought. They'd both likely poison the batch regardless of who was doing the ordering. No community service for either of those too.

"Come give me a hand. Don't you want to get your hands dirty?" He asked with a teasing waggle of his eyebrow.

Felicity backed away, bumping the car door closed. "No, this Vegas girl never got down in the dirt for anyone. Epic fatality on a manicure."

Oliver grabbed up a huge clump of dirt and stood, heading in her direction. Felicity took one look at the dark gritty pile in his hands that had one more than one pink wriggling thing poking from between his fingers and shrieked, almost dropping her hundreds of dollars worth of new tech hardware.

Oliver saw the look on her face and immediately quickened his pace concerned about her sudden change in pallor and the shaking of her body.

"Don't come any closer," she screamed and ran for the back door of the house.

Oliver froze, his face falling as her words and her terror hit home. She was scared witless and he just couldn't get past the fact that she'd only been looking at him. There wasn't anyone else or any immediate danger. He never let his guard down, he was aware of every shrub, house, resident, kid, stray dog and goat in the neighborhood.

Then it dawned. He still had the dirt in his hands. She was afraid of dirt? He looked down and saw the earth worm that was trying to escape daylight after being rudely torn from its burrow. His hands, rough from regular working out and using all manner of weapons and tools had lost a lot of sensitivity. His skin was dry and cracked with thick callouses. She was scared of worms? She'd never mentioned that. But then she'd also implied she'd never been a gardener.

He dropped his handful back in the garden bed and sprinkled a bit of moist planting mix on top to rescue the worm from the afternoon sun. Then he went to wash his hands.

He found Felicity inside at the kitchen counter. She hadn't unpacked her bags and she was vacantly staring out the window to the backyard. Had she been watching him? What was she thinking? He found it really hard to guess what she was thinking. She was so smart and her brain could be thinking on so many different tangents at once at lot of which were foreign territory for him. He was a fast study but he never finished college and a lot of the time Felicity started talking science or tech he felt completely out of his element.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely.

Felicity shook her head and hastily brushed the tear tracks from her cheeks. "It's crazy. I didn't even know I was terrified of them until I saw you bringing them over. I didn't know what I was thinking. I just felt my heart spike at a hundred beats a minute and my brain went numb and I just panicked. I know it's stupid. I know you would never let anything hurt me," she sniffled and looked up at him with watery eyes.

He took her in his arms swiftly and hugged her tightly feeling her body relax against his. He breathed her in, her warmth and scent pervading his senses and calming his own irrationally rapid heartbeat. He would always worry for her safety and her happiness. Secretly he was also worried that one day she would wake up and realize how dark and tainted his soul was. That some of the things he'd done were monstrous. That part of him was a monster in deceptive clothing. And then she'd would leave and never look back. His hands shook but he hid it well by pressing them firmly in the small of her back. He kissed her hair and leaned back to lift her chin. He kissed her until he had his fill and he caught her happy breathless sigh.

"Wait here a second. I have a surprise for you. I was going to give it you when you woke up in the morning but now works."

Felicity shook her head with a rueful smile. She was understanding that her lover was a closet dork and a big romantic. He loved kissing her awake in the mornings. He'd join her in the shower just so he could wash her hair and scrub her back, he loved to hold her hand all the time, walking, driving, sitting across the table at dinner. And he was always making gestures, small things to show her, prove to her that he loved her. As though she didn't already believe it with the lengths he went to protect her and Thea. The bargain he'd struck with Malcolm of all people. She shook those frustrating thoughts away. She refused to let the past haunt them. Those dark days were gone. They were happy and more importantly, he was happy and smiling. She would fight to make sure things stayed that way. He deserved it. They deserved this.

When Oliver came back, he was hidden behind a beautiful tropical arrangement of flowers. The scent was amazing and green foliage against the yellows and creams of the flowers were perfectly contrasted and so lush. It must have been expensive.

"Oliver, you don't have to do this kind of thing for me, I..."

He set the arrangement down on the table and grabbed her hands, interlacing their fingers and hastily silencing her protests with a look. "I got a job at the nursery in town, they also have a small florist shop. She let me play around a bit and she said I had a natural instinct for aesthetics."

"You're sure she wasn't just admiring your physical display of aesthetics?" she asked with one delicately arched eyebrow, her fingertips trailing over his hard chest.

Oliver kissed the very end of her nose and smiled down at her. "She's fifty nine with fourteen grandkids."

"And my mother will be 52 this year and looks like my older sister," Felicity huffed and snuggled deeper into his arms.

"I told her these flowers were for the woman who saved my life. The woman I love," Oliver said softly but undoubtedly.

Felicity looked up at him, blinking back a fresh wave of tears. "Had to return the favor. You certainly saved mine often enough."

Oliver pulled her in close and squeezed her in a hug. Having her pressed up against him was beginning to awaken a sleeping dragon. He doubted he'd ever be sated in his need for her. "We save each other. I can admit that now. It's what true partners do."

Felicity flashed him a beaming impressed grin. "I knew you'd come around to seeing things way eventually."

Oliver chuckled and Felicity could note that it was a beautiful sound. She noticed his blush and realized her filter had failed to keep that as a mental note. She kissed the dimple in his cheek and framed his face with her hands.

"Does that mean I can expect these all the time now?"

Oliver grabbed her ass and then slapped one perfectly rounded curve. "Cheeky."

"Kinky," she teased back, arching into him deliberately.

He groaned and threw his head back as she ground against him. "Felicity," he growled in warning.

Felicity ignored his antics and focused all her attention on the freshly exposed length of his neck and attacked it with practiced precision. The dip where his neck and shoulder met was particularly sensitive to her kisses. He really was easy, she didn't even have to flash him boobs to have him whimpering and grabby.

She might not have any talent when it came to floral arrangements or running a self sustaining home but she knew how to play to her strengths and she knew her way around Oliver's body and mind better than she could navigate the A.R.G.U.S mainframe and that was saying a lot since she was the one that had just upgraded their security systems, well she had headed the team anyway. Digressing. Who need mental wittiness when her man had his very talented fingers down her shorts.


	5. Road Trip: Property Of

Hiatus one-shot: Olicity Road Trip adventures

Summary: Felicity meets an old friend of Oliver's and feels like a third wheel, until she doesn't.

* * *

They were walking through the food market in town deciding what to have for lunch. It was a new trend where Oliver liked her to choose. She didn't even have anything to go on about his palate to help her since he'd been exposed to so many different kinds of food. For a time he'd lived on air as part of his survival. He'd been forced from one form of captivity to another for years, left eat whatever was on offer or risk offending his hosts. He could survive on reptiles and wild birds, or enjoy a tiny bowl of rice or grin over a plate full of salted herring. She didn't want him to be grateful for a meal. The foodie in her wanted him to relish it. Where was the focused, dominant, alpha-type she'd first gotten flustered over and unequivocally told him she had totally checked him out.

_"I'm very particular about what I put in my body."_

_"I've noticed." She blinked rapidly and folded her arms around herself, mentally chastising her brain for lack inner monologue to tongue filter. "I said, NOT noticed, right?"_

She hadn't noticed then but even though he looked like he was under the influence of the worst hangover ever, he'd actually been smiling and struggling not to laugh. Even then she'd been changing his world. He said in the years before they met, nothing good had happened to him. He never had a reason to smile or laugh. She was glad she had been able to change that for him. Even if some of it had been mortifying and at her expense.

Oliver was quick to assured her it had never been at her. His smile was because of her. He'd probably found her door, looking for a one-off go to for his Hood crusade but he'd found something else. She was not an asset or a familial obligation or responsibility. And especially not a threat or an enemy. Just a person. She was his person.

"You're my person too," she said suddenly, hugging his arm. Oliver grinned at her with an easy smile that transformed his face. He'd been serious a moment earlier, probably scouring the area for any sign of danger and marking every escape route. His happy face warmed her all the way to her toes and she kissed his shoulder.

"How do you feel about enchiladas? I could go for some spicy chicken."

Oliver opened his mouth to reply when a voice called out to them.

"Lily White!"

Oliver froze but as he turned, Felicity could see that he was fighting an expression between amused and embarrassed.

A tall man, built a lot like Oliver came bounding up to them. He embraced Oliver with a hearty clap on the back.

"I thought it was you. Doesn't matter how you dress it, I'll always know that ass when I see it."

Felicity's jaw dropped and she looked between Oliver and the man. Where and under what circumstances would this man have seen Oliver's butt to be familiar with it.

Running a hand over his face and shaking his head with a rueful grin. He waved between them in introduction. "Felicity, this is Hal Jordan. Hal, Felicity is my Carol Ferris."

Felicity shook Hal's outstretched hand. "Ferris as in Ferris Air? That's why I know your face. It was bugging me. You're the test pilot that went missing. What happened? Or are you flying under the radar?" she stepped closer with a stage whisper.

Hal smiled at her. "It was a bit touch and go for a bit but I made it back. I've been gone for awhile so I figured my girl and I deserved a holiday." He winked at Oliver. "I can see what you like her. She's cute."

Felicity rolled her eyes. Sara had said the same thing. Did they find her cute because it was their way of saying her quirky brain wasn't unattractive? Or her looks made up for the things that came out of her mouth.

"Both," Hal said still fighting a grin.

Felicity resisted the urge to face-palm and she felt Oliver's lips at her temple.

"One of the many reasons I love you," he said for any and all to hear.

Hal slung his arm over Oliver's shoulders and pulled them in the direction of a bustling cantina. "I'll tell you all about our college years if you tell me how you two met," he said.

"Including how you can spot Oliver's ass," she asked, burning with curiosity.

Hal opened his mouth but Oliver cut him off with a look, while squeezing her fingers, his face betraying his discomfort over having to relieve this particular story.

"It's not a long story. It has to do with the night we all got high and Hal decided we should get tattoos. He got Property of Carol Ferris tattooed cross the top of his butt. I was getting prepped next to him but when I saw the needle, I freaked out. I tried to get away and tripped over my pants. Caught the end of the artist's table on the way down and ended up mooning everyone in the parlor."

"But you've got so many..." His quick squeeze cut her short and she flickered her gaze between Oliver and Hal before she covered her slip. "I didn't think you were scared of anything."

Oliver gave her a small smile. He was terrified of plenty of things. The top of that list was disappointing her. Or just as bad, failing to protect her.

"Oh I don't think he was afraid of the needle. That's Carol's interpretation of what happened. I think he took one look at my tattoo and bailed. That Oliver was commitment phobic."

Felicity squeezed Oliver's hand in reassurance and smiled up at him. He might have been a player in his past but she had no doubts about his commitment to her. To their partnership.

Hal grinned watching them both. They had the look of two people completely gone on each other. "Looks like he grew out of that problem."


End file.
